This looks rather meaningful.

As a mancunian teenager, the stone roses were also a major part of the scene that year and was by far the most exciting sound we'd ever heard live, punching so much harder than the smiths

1972 often cited: exile on main st, harvest, Ziggy stardust, zep iv, tapestry all released plus all the other bands touring at their peaks - you can see why.

Well out of my depth here but "science" is not set in stone. I think Einstein had something to say about Newton, but I only got as far as A level physics...

Yes. No signs of global supply chain stress this year so far.

There are some useful notes on using the PMI to track productivity more broadly here if interested: www.spglobal.com/marketintell...

Nice clear desk for me then. I have none of those

Q1 strength in 2024 and 2025 also a function of rebounds from unusually weak Q4s I think? If you look at NSA nominal Q4 growth usually quite strong.

Q1 2020, 2021 and 2022 all depressed by covid & related containment (both regulated and voluntary). Q1 2023 hit by strikes. 2024 and 2025 back to more normal Q1s. Those weak Q1s between 2020 and 2023 played havoc with X13

V. interesting thread Chris. There's been so much distorting the economic data in recent years it's difficult to disentangle the factors at play. Certainly Q1 GDP (current price, NSA) has been showing an upward trend in recent years.

But before getting too excited about surging productivity, note that no such signal is apparent if GDP is replaced by the PMI output index, which points to a more normal output:employment ratio

Here's the UK GDP quarterly (3m/3m % change) growth profile of private sector services in recent years, supposedly seasonally adjusted... strong growth early in the spring seems to fade as we move into the second half of the year. This sector account for about 60% of GDP. (2/2)